


Wisps of Curiosity

by barbex



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dwarf in the Fade, In the Fade, Other, Spirits, Spirits have no gender and I will die on this hill, The Fade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:48:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27433078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbex/pseuds/barbex
Summary: Dwarves don't dream, dwarves don't enter the Fade when they sleep.But the mark on Mina's hand seems to change the rules and Mina meets a spirit in the Fade. A very curious spirit. They want to learn about feelings and touching all these solid things.
Relationships: Female Cadash/Non-Binary Spirit, Female Cadash/Original Non-Binary Character, Female Cadash/Spirit
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: 2020 A Paragon of Their Kind Dragon Age Dwarf Exchange





	Wisps of Curiosity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Current_Resident](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Current_Resident/gifts).



> Written as a treat for the A Paragon of Their Kind Dragon Age Dwarf Exchange.
> 
> I know it's not quite demon sex, Current_Resident, but I hope you still like it.

* * *

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

Mina Cadash opens her eyes. At least she thinks she does. Some part of her is sure that her eyes are still closed but if that were the case, how does she see? And see she does, even if none of the things make sense. A sickly green sky with floating mountains stretches above her, open and endless in a way the world should not be. "What in the rotten stones?"

"Haven't seen your kind in a long time."

Mina sits up and squints at the... thing... person speaking to her. It seems to be made of mist but the longer she looks at them, the more they take on solid form. They look like an elf at first but slowly change shape to a more stocky figure, a veritable dwarf. If dwarves had purple skin and shimmered from the inside. 

"What are you and where am I?" One giant rock slowly turns above her head and there is just something fundamentally wrong with rocks that float. It makes her skin crawl.

"I'm a spirit and this is the Fade." The spirit spins around, their feet floating over the ground. 

The ground looks like rocks but when Mina touches it, it feels soft, almost spongy. She frowns, whoever created this place, knows very little about rocks and stones. "Is this some kind of magic? Am I trapped in a spell?"

"No," the spirit says. "This is the Fade." 

"That's impossible, I'm a dwarf, we don't dream and we definitely don't do this Fade nonsense." 

The spirit sits down in front of her and stares at her. Their eyes are wide and glow with violet light. "A child of the stone. Your kind has not been here in a long time."

Mina snorts. "And what does that mean? Once upon a time, dwarves had magic?" 

The spirit lays their head to the side. "Time is different here. Once, the stones were more real."

"More real?"

"Your kind knows stones."

Mina doesn't have much hope to get a sensible conversation out of the spirit but it's not like she has much else to do right now. "Why am I here? I mean, I'm sleeping right now, am I? At least I hope so, I was tired as fuck."

"The fire wants to be here."

"Which fire— " and then she remembers. She holds up her left hand, the one with the burning and hissing mark. Her hand is closed in a fist, as it often is. With what little control she has over the mark, closing her fist at least lets her forget about it sometimes, which makes it somewhat more bearable to wear the foreign thing. 

She opens her fist, bracing herself for the angry hiss and the searing burn as the mark lights up but — it doesn't happen. Instead, the mark opens like a blooming flower in the sun, soft tendrils stretching upwards in a graceful arc.

"Huh." Mina plays with her fingers, poking through the tendrils of green light, watching how the light ripples and adapts, twirling around her finger. "Looks like it likes it here."

The spirit floats closer, watching the dancing mark with childlike wonder. "This is home."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised." Mina waves her hand around. The green light waves like a flag in the wind, even though there is no wind here. That is actually something she likes. Wind can be unnerving if you grew up underground. 

She looks at the spirit again. They seem to try out new looks, rapidly switching through ages and genders, hairstyles and beard styles. Their skin color has changed from bright purple to a darker shade but still distinctly purple. "And who are you?" she asks. It seems to be the polite thing to ask after all.

"A spirit."

"Yes, I know, but what kind? Aren't you guys always named after... well... your job?" 

"Is that what a name is? A description?"

"It can be," Mina says with a shrug. "That's probably how names started back in history. The qu— some cultures still do that." She's not going to explain to a spirit what qunari are. 

"What is your name?"

"Mina." The name falls from her lips without a second thought and only when the sound lingers between them in a tangible cloud of mist does she wonder if giving out her name could give a spirit power over her.

"Is your name a description?"

"I think in one of the old languages there was a word minalevra, meaning 'search for answers'. At least that's what my mother told me when I was little. She gave me my name."

"Your mother..." The spirit comes closer in a fluid movement, like a cat stalking its prey.

Mina leans back and brings up a hand. She isn't touching the spirit, not yet, but she is ready to do so. "You know what? I want to go. Can I go?"

Disappointment settles on the purple face of the spirit. "Of course." They shrug and turn away. They have settled on a look of a dwarf with a slim face, not quite male or female. A blue line stretches from their forehead down their nose, almost black against the purple color of their skin. They have short hair, similar to how Mina keeps her hair. "I'm not holding you here."

"Sorry, I thought you did." She stands up and looks around again. Nothing has really changed in the eerie green light. "So how do I...? Is there a door somewhere?" 

"If you want to." The spirit has settled down on a mossy rock, playing with floating pebbles. 

Pebbles should not float, Mina is certain of that. "What in the void does that mean? You throw all the pebbles up and then it's a door?"

The spirit looks at her, looks at the pebbles in their hand, grins, and throws them up in the air. Green light flashes and the pebbles float in an oval shape, gently spinning on their own axis as they encircle a glimmering slice of vertical water.

Mina steps up and pokes the glimmering water. It feels warm and holds firm like the surface of cooled down pudding. She looks back to the spirit. "This is my door?"

The spirit shrugs. "You made it."

"I did?" Mina turns back to the water and before she can think, it has taken her in. 

Mina opens her yes. Again. Above her, the canopy of her ridiculously large orlesian bed swings gently in the wind from the open window. 

_Ah yes, wind._ This must be the real world then.

~~~

No wind. Floating mountains.

_Ah, the Fade._

Mina sits up and looks around. The green light stretches out towards nothing, never changing, never giving a horizon to look at. It feels a bit like when she left the stonehalls and came to the surface for the first time, when her eyes suddenly had nothing to hold onto anymore. No ceiling, no walls, just endless sky and a horizon line far away. 

Now, she doesn't even have a horizon, just a blurry line where the light gets too dim to see. Shapes move in the distance but around her, the emptiness is threatening. 

"Hello?" she calls. "Spirit, are you here?"

A bell sounds next to her and before her eyes, a purple light twists and stretches into a shape with a face. The face becomes more distinct, taking the same slim shape as before. But the rest of the body stays shapeless, tendrils of light and mist that remind Mina of something. 

The spirit's eyes open and they smile. "You came back!"

"Apparently, I don't know why it happens sometimes and doesn't other times." 

The spirit flits around her, their face switching through different kinds of smiles. "Mina. Mi-na." 

Mina turns around to look at the wispy figure. "Yes, that's my name. Do you have a name now?" 

The spirit dims for a moment. "I don't have a mother."

"You don't need a mother for a name, you can give yourself one. Or I can give you a name." 

"Oh! How interesting." They draw the word out and at the same time their body becomes more solid, looking more like a dwarf with dark purple skin again. Only their hands still look like wisps of fog, dancing around like the flame in Mina's hand.

"You still haven't told me what kind of spirit you are."

"I don't know yet. Here we are growing."

"Here? Like in this part of the Fade?" Mina wracks her brain to remember what she has heard about the Fade. She isn't a mage, she never paid attention to all that fade stuff. 

"This part of the Fade is where we grow up to be whole."

"A spirit nursery? Really?" Mina laughs out. "I can't wait to tell Solas about this." 

"Will you give me a name?"

"I can yes, if that's alright." 

The purple light under the spirit's skin glowed and dimmed again. "I don't know if it's alright."

Mina frowns at that, if the spirit doesn't even know about the rules of this palace, who does? "Well, I don't know either, I didn't really pay attention when people talked about spirits." 

"What are people talking about?"

"Uhm, that your kind wants to know our world and then you can't handle it and turn into a demon." 

The dwarven figure in front of her dissolves into mist with a snap and hovers as a bright purple light over Mina's head. "I don't want that, I don't want to be a demon."

"Well, don't then?" Mina shrugs. "I don't know how this all works but I think you can decide to not possess someone. I think. Honestly, I'm the worst person for this conversation, you should hang out with Solas, he knows everything."

"But he is not here, you are." The spirit floats back down, becoming corporal again as it touches the ground. "Maybe I can see your world when I have a name?"

Mina is pretty sure, if she were awake for this, she would have a massive headache by now. "I doubt it but I don't know shit. You want a name? How about Curio?"

"Curio. Curio." The spirit says the word, testing it. "Does the name have a meaning?"

Mina grins, she expected that question. "Curio, from curiosity. I don't know if there's a spirit of curiosity but I think it would fit you well." 

"Curio, I like it." Curio stands up and struts around on the spongy ground with legs that look way too long for dwarf legs. "Curio. I am Curio."

The world tilts and Mina opens her eyes again. The canopy moves in the draft from the window. She sits up and looks towards the mountains in the background, bathed in orange light from the rising sun. 

"Sorry, Curio," she says to herself. "Looks like it is time for me to get up."

~~~

The spongy ground under her feet makes it easy to skip and jump. The spinning mountains above her head still unnerve her but if she doesn't look up, she can ignore them. 

"Curio? Hello?"

"Mina!" A purple dwarf with white hair bounces towards her on stocky legs. "I am Curio!"

A smile spreads on Mina's face, Curio's happiness is contagious. "You still like the name?"

Curio comes to a stop in front of her and waves their misty hands. They have gotten better at forming hands but tendrils of mist still cling to their fingertips and sometimes they seem to lose count of how many fingers they should have. "I love my name!"

Mina finds a place to sit and stretches her legs out. She wears her armor in this dream world but it feels like soft linen and bends when she touches it. Curio wears the same type of armor, he probably takes his appearance from her. 

"So," Mina says, "how long will you stay in this nursery?"

"As long as I must."

"So you don't know?"

"It will change."

"Fine," Mina says and leans back to look up at the spinning mountains. "It's all different here, I guess." She has gotten used to seeing mountains above her. The light in her hand tingles and she opens her palm to watch the mark dance on it, gently and beautiful.

Curio sits down next to Mina and plays with the dancing mark on her hand. It follows their misty fingers, the purple and green tangling around each other. "What is your world like?"

"It's... more solid. Things are one thing and stay that way." Mina looks up. "Mountains don't float, they are heavy and press into the ground."

"How strange." Curio stares at the floating mountains. "I want to go there."

Mina looks at Curio. "I think that isn't so easy." Maybe she should ask Cole about it.

Curio turns to her with a sheepish smile. "I looked."

"How?"

"Sometimes a gap opens, I can see through it." Curio's eyes shine with bright violet light. "Strange colors, strange beings. I could go through there."

"Wait, wait, that's a rift, you're talking about a rift!" Mina grabs Curio's arm, her hand slipping through the effect of his armor until she feels something solid. "Never go through a rift, you'll turn into a demon."

"But I just want to feel it."

"It doesn't work that way." Mina takes his hand in her left hand, the dancing light from her green mark mixing with the purple tendrils of his again. "I'll ask... I'll ask someone who knows more about this, how to help you into our world but stay away from rifts."

Curio silently looks at her, his face dissolving into mist and Mina opens her eyes again to the canopy of her orlesian bed.

~~~

The Fallow Mire is by far the worst place on Thedas' surface. By far. Mina's boots are soaked, water runs down her back where the rain has found a way into her armor and if she never has to see another walking skeleton again, it won't be soon enough. 

"A rift up front, boss," the Iron Bull calls over his shoulder. 

Mina unclenches her fist and lets the mark light up. It hisses and sputters before it finds a steady glow. Ever since she has interacted with the mark in the Fade, she has gotten better at using it out here in the real world. "Get in position," she calls out and hurries to catch up with the Iron Bull.

She readies her bow and holds the arrow loose in her hand, willing the mark to expand first. With a smile, she nods at Varric, who climbs up on an overturned cart and then looks over to Solas, whose staff is already sizzling with blue arcing light. Solas bows his head to Mina as he walks over to the side, readying himself for the attack.

Mina raises the mark, aggravating the rift and then they fall into a well rehearsed play of cutting down demons as they approach. Angry demons fall to their arrows, bolts, and magic attacks, or get slayed by the Iron Bull's battle axe, should they manage to get that far. Whenever there is a pause in the demon flood, Mina pours energy from the mark into the rift, until it has shrunk to a small gap. Two more rage demons slither out, quickly cut down by the Iron Bull and then Mina readies her arm to close the rift for good.

She raises her hand to the light beam on the frayed edge of the rift but something catches her eye. A purple light, wispy tendrils stretching through the rift, catches her eye. She lets her arm sink down and steps closer to the rift.

"Boss?" 

"Mina?" Varric's voice carries that tone, where he tries to hide all his desperate worry under a light hearted chuckle.

"Just a moment," she says and peers into the rift. 

Purple mist slithers through the gap, the form turning solid as it leaves the rift. 

"Curio?"

A familiar face forms in the mist, bright violet eyes and a wide mouth grinning at her. "Mina, I see you!" 

Magic crackles behind her and a sigil begins to glow under her feet. Solas appears at her side, his staff held out towards Curio. He glances at Mina, keeping the spirit in his vision. "What are you doing?"

"I know them, I talked to them before."

Solas frowns and looks more closely at Curio. "You are a spirit."

Curio smiles. "Yes, I am. Mina gave me a name."

The glare Solas sends to her, should have dried her boots by all rights. He turns back to Curio, slowly lowering his staff. "This world is dangerous for you, you should not be here." 

"But I want to, I want to see it all." Curio looks towards the sky and their eyes go wide. "What is that?" They look to the ground and their shape changes, becoming longer and thicker. "How is it this way? Why are you angry? Why are you all angry?" Curio keeps slipping in and out of shapes and one of their arms stretches forward to Mina but they hiss as they touch the metal of her shoulderguards. "You hurt me," Curio cries out.

"No, I didn't. You just don't know what this world feels like," Mina hurries to say. 

"Go back, back into the Fade," Solas urges. "You are not prepared for this world."

"This world hurts!" Culio's color changes to red and he keeps growing, looking more and more like a rage demon. "So much anger!"

"Curio, no!" Mina rushes forward, pushing into the red and purple mass and shoves them back to the rift, despite the burning pain in her hands.

Curio shrieks, their voice changing to the familiar roar of a demon and they strike at Mina, fire slashing across her face. Mina cries out, her face burning like it's cut in half. Solas' magic explodes around him, pushing the shrieking demon form of Curio against the rift and then he grabs Mina's left arm and holds her hand up. "Close it, now!"

Mina swallows her tears and pours her grief into the mark. She keeps her eyes closed, counting on Solas to aim the light towards the rift. The energy snaps away when the rift closes and in the following silence she realizes that the all encompassing noises she heard before were Curio's screams.

~~~

Mina walks the Fade in silence. She hasn't been here in a while, specifically here, she's been in other parts of the Fade. The mark covers her whole lower arm by now and only in the Fade does it hurt. Here it dances softly, wrapping around her arm like green gossamer threads of light and mist. She breathes a sigh of relief and lets the fire in her palm dance freely.

Translucent wisps of mist flitter around in the distance but they never come to her. She is alone here, a welcome change to all the business in her life but she still misses the company of the curious little spirit. She's never seen him again. 

Mina leans back on the spongy ground and closes her eyes. The floating mountains still disturb her. She idly wonders if sleep in the Fade, while sleeping, is doubly effective to battle her constant tiredness. 

A whisper, almost inaudible, comes to her. Her eyes fly open and she tries to hear where the sound came from. "Hello?" she asks carefully.

"Mina."

She sits up and looks around. "Curio, is that you?"

She waits for what feels like a long time but time in the Fade is a fleeting concept at best, she has no idea how long any of her visits in the Fade are. 

"Curio?"

A purple light appears in front of her, stretching and twisting until it takes on the familiar form of a stocky, purple dwarf with violet eyes. A red mark cuts across their face, similar to the red scar across Mina's face. 

Mina holds out her hands to Curio, slowly, careful not to scare them away. "Curio, I'm so glad to see you. I'm sorry you got hurt."

Curio stretches out a purple flame finger, holding it over the green flame of her mark and lets his own light mix with the green flame. "I was not ready. I hurt you."

"I know you didn't mean it."

Curio looks at her, his eyes glowing. "You know that?"

"Yes," Mina says. "I'm not angry, I never was. I know it was just too much for you."

"Touching you hurt me."

"My armor, I know. Because it was solid?"

Curio lays their head to the side. "Because it was real. I know that now. I learned from one of your kind."

"One of my kind?" Mina frowns at that. "Another dwarf who knows magic?"

"He knows the Fade. He says that the magic will return. He helped me to understand."

"To understand what?"

"The realness. What touching is."

Mina holds out her other hand and strokes her fingertip over Curio's cheek. "Do you feel that?"

Purple light rushes through Curio's body, gathering as pools of light under Mina's fingertips. 

"Yes, I feel that." Curio takes a step towards her, their body partly dissolving into mist. The fine threads of mist wrap around Mina, warming her skin like rays of sunlight. "Do you feel that too?" Curio asks.

"Yes, I do but it's different." 

"It's not my form, it's me."

"I don't understand what that means." 

Curio's touch glides over and under her skin, making her tremble. 

"You don't need to." 

Mina shudders, her body wrapped in purple mist, pleasure flooding her. Curio's purple mist caresses her, finding places in her she didn't even know of and what kind of pleasure they could bring until she cries out and her sigh turns into flowers made of green fog floating from her mouth.

"Oh," Curio says, their eyes closing in bliss. "I understand now."

Mina blinks, trying to gather her thoughts. "I didn't know you could do that."

Curio takes a step back, their form turning solid again. "I liked that, did you like that too?" 

"Yes, very much."

Curio sits down and looks at Mina, their violet eyes taking in everything. "You will come back, yes?"

Mina sighs and looks at the green flames covering her left arm. "I'll try but I don't know how long I have left."

"Left?"

"This mark is not good for me, it will kill me soon. And if we find a way to take the mark off... I think then I can't be back."

"No?"

"My kind doesn't dream in the Fade."

"And you can't change that?" Curio switches through forms, changing from a dwarf to an elf and a human and the back to a dwarf. 

"No, that I'm here is already very strange." Mina looks at the tendrils of green light dancing around her arm. She never asked for this thing on her hand, she never wanted to have magic like this. But without it, she never would have met Curio.

"But I want you to come back."

"I'll try."

The Fade disappears and wind from the open windows brushes over her cheeks like a caressing touch. She opens her eyes and sighs. The satisfied ache and wetness between her thighs tells her that she didn't _just_ dream.

~~~

Skyhold is cold, summer being short up here in the mountains. Mina wraps a shawl around her neck and closes the hooks of her jacket. Her wardrobe has been adjusted to the loss of her arm, hooks instead of buttons, the left sleeve always cut short to make attaching of the prosthesis easier. 

She hasn't dreamt anymore, since she lost the arm. The Fade is just a memory, just like Curio. She misses them and with every rift she closed, she feared to see the purple light again. As much as she misses them, she doesn't want to see them turn into a demon. But now, all the rifts are closed, the veil holds, at least for now, and she is just a dwarf. She will never see the Fade again, will never meet Curio again.

Mina walks down the stairs into the courtyard, greeting the people there with a nod. She doesn't recognize many faces. The Inquisition has changed but Skyhold is still the center of progress. People come to Skyhold to be inspired and learn from the daily teachings, to carry new ideas out into the rest of Thedas. New faces show up every day, watching her, the Herald, but since she lost the arm with the mark, they tend to leave her alone.

She makes her way across the courtyard and climbs up to the ramparts, where the morning sun warms the old stones. The mountains glow golden in the sun. This is her favorite spot and her favorite time of the day to watch the mountains.

"Soothing, calming," a voice says behind her. "But you won't go back there."

"Hello Cole." Mina turns around and looks at Cole until she can really see him. 

"I brought your friend." Cole doesn't look at Mina as he talks. 

"Who? Who did you bring?"

"The one you think about."

"What?" Mina looks around but they are alone on the ramparts. As she turns back to Cole, a person appears next to him in a flash of purple light. 

Familiar tendrils of purple gossamer threads wrap around the vague figure, wrapping tighter and tighter, until a body is formed, short and stocky like a dwarf, with dark purple skin. The face appears last, a blue line drawn from their forehead down to their chin, bright violet eyes looking at her and a mouth drawn into a wide grin.

Mina gasps. "Curio?"

"That's my name." Curio blinks and looks around. "How strange and solid."

Staring at Curio, Mina struggles to ask what she has to. "Are you...?" 

"They're not a demon," Cole says. "A spirit, but on this side."

"Thank the stones," Mina says with a sigh of relief. She rushes forward and wraps her arms around Curio. "And you're solid, real."

Curio lets out a gasp and slowly leans into the hug. "I can touch you like this."

"Yes," Mina whispers. A tear falls from her eye that she ignores. "And...," she looks down between them, "you're naked."

"You knew it comes off," Cole says. "I didn't know it came off at first."

"You will stay?" Mina asks Curio carefully.

"Yes."

"Then we should get you something to wear." 

"If you say so." Curio looks around, blinking slowly. "Show me this solid world of yours."


End file.
